I know what you're thinking.
When I first heard Matt Holba was leaving Chesterton and would attend Guerin Catholic in Indianapolis, I thought the same thing -- here goes another high-caliber basketball player to a private school.
While it's naive to think those things aren't happening, this isn't the case of a petulant kid and an egomaniac parent who believes to know more than the coach.
"People are going to say what they say when they huddle in the corners," Holba's dad Tom said. "We have no problem with the Chesterton school system. It's a great school system. I know there's frustration at a lot of schools, but if this was a transfer, I wouldn't be moving my whole family away from Chesterton. (Rumors) are always going to be out there, but every situation has different circumstances."
Matt's read all the social network scuttlebutt, too, and hopes people don't buy the talk.
"I can't live by myself," he said. "I've got to go where my family goes. I feel bad, but life goes on. It'll be different, but I have to come to terms with it. There's not much I can do about it."
When Tom Holba found out back in November that his work area was going to change and a move was in the offing, the family began looking at schools in the Indianapolis area, notably Fishers, Carmel and Hamilton Southeastern.
"I had a buddy ask me if I'd heard of Guerin Catholic," Holba said. "People were asking me, and 80 percent of them had never heard of the place."
Guerin opened less than 10 years ago but has already established itself as a state power in multiple sports, as has been the case with a number of 'privates' around the state. Rather than get wrapped up in a bidding war of sorts, the Holbas chose the Catholic school in Noblesville. They will also be 20 minutes away from daughter Claire, who is transferring from IUPUI to Marian.
"The whole thing was very fluid," Tom Holba said. "The job situation was stressful. We didn't want it to be a circus for Matt. He's a good kid. We want to make sure the transition is smooth."
The family will move at the end of the school year, though Matt will continue to play AAU basketball in the area with Mean Streets.
"It's not like I'm moving cross country," he said. "I'll be making a lot of new friends and keeping in touch with the old ones."
Several years ago, when Mitch McGary left Chesterton for a prep school, the domino effect was dramatic. Two players quit the basketball team in the summer and another left in season. Chesterton didn't have another winning record until this year, and now chatter has already begun regarding another Trojan.
"I don't know the whole Mitch thing," Tom Holba said. "It was the same in that he was going away from home and friends, but at the end of the day, it was about Mitch and them doing what was best for Mitch."
The end result of both is the same -- a good player leaving Chesterton. I feel for Trojans coach Tom Peller, who has helped develop them through their formative high school years, only to not reap the benefits.
"I'm not trying to make it hard for everybody else," Holba said before Thursday's team banquet. "They're bummed out, but they'll be all right. They'll still have a good team."
This column solely represents the writer's opinion. Reach him at jim.peters@nwi.com.
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